Updated: Six attorneys are among 21 employees of 10 law firms in New York City who have been criminally charged in federal court in Manhattan with participating in a claimed conspiracy to win asylum for individuals based on false claims of persecution.

A total of 26 individuals are named as defendants in the case and 21 of them were arrested Tuesday, NBC New York reports.

Court papers say that workers at the law firms at issue, which are located in Manhattan’s Chinatown and in Queens, coached clients to lie to U.S. immigration authorities and even provided translators who, if the applicant said something inconsistent with the fabricated story of persecution, falsely translated answers to support it.

An FBI press release says the defendants include four translators and a church worker who coached those who said they had been persecuted over their Christian beliefs.